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A Flawed Peace
MAIN IDEA
POWER AND AUTHORITY After
winning the war, the Allies
dictated a harsh peace
settlement that left many
nations feeling betrayed.
CALIFORNIA STANDARDS
10.6.1 Analyze the aims and negotiating
roles of world leaders, the terms and
influence of the Treaty of Versailles and
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the
causes and effects of the United States’s
rejection of the League of Nations on
world politics.
10.6.2 Describe the effects of the war and
resulting peace treaties on population
movement, the international economy, and
shifts in the geographic and political borders of Europe and the Middle East.
10.8.2 Understand the role of appeasement,
nonintervention (isolationism), and the
domestic distractions in Europe and the
United States prior to the outbreak of
World War II.
TAKING NOTES
Clarifying Use a
chart to record the
reaction by various
groups to the Treaty
of Versailles.
Reaction to Treaty
Germany
Africans
& Asians
Italyy
& Japan
424 Chapter 13
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Hard feelings left by the peace
settlement helped cause World
War II.
TERMS & NAMES
• self• Woodrow
determination
Wilson
• Treaty of
• Georges
Versailles
Clemenceau
• Fourteen Points • League of Nations
SETTING THE STAGE World War I was over. The killing had stopped. The
terms of peace, however, still had to be worked out. On January 18, 1919, a conference to establish those terms began at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris.
Attending the talks, known as the Paris Peace Conference, were delegates representing 32 countries. For one year, this conference would be the scene of vigorous, often bitter debate. The Allied powers struggled to solve their conflicting
aims in various peace treaties.
The Allies Meet and Debate
Despite representatives from numerous countries, the meeting’s major decisions
were hammered out by a group known as the Big Four: Woodrow Wilson of the
United States, Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of Great
Britain, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy. Russia, in the grip of civil war, was not represented. Neither were Germany and its allies.
Wilson’s Plan for Peace In January 1918, while the war was still raging,
President Wilson had drawn up a series of peace proposals. Known as the
Fourteen Points, they outlined a plan for achieving a just and lasting peace.
The first four points included an end to secret treaties, freedom of the seas,
free trade, and reduced national armies and navies. The fifth goal was the adjustment of colonial claims with fairness toward colonial peoples. The sixth through
thirteenth points were specific suggestions for changing borders and creating
new nations. The guiding idea behind these points was self-determination. This
meant allowing people to decide for themselves under what government they
wished to live.
Finally, the fourteenth point proposed a “general association of nations” that
would protect “great and small states alike.” This reflected Wilson’s hope for an
organization that could peacefully negotiate solutions to world conflicts.
The Versailles Treaty As the Paris Peace Conference opened, Britain and
France showed little sign of agreeing to Wilson’s vision of peace. Both nations
were concerned with national security. They also wanted to strip Germany of its
war-making power.
The differences in French, British, and U.S. aims led to heated arguments among
the nations’ leaders. Finally a compromise was reached. The Treaty of Versailles
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Vocabulary
Reparations is
money paid by a
defeated nation to
compensate for
damage or injury
during a war.
between Germany and the Allied powers was
signed on June 28, 1919, five years to the day
after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo.
Adopting Wilson’s fourteenth point, the treaty
created a League of Nations. The league was to
be an international association whose goal would
be to keep peace among nations.
The treaty also punished Germany. The
defeated nation lost substantial territory and had
severe restrictions placed on its military operations. As tough as these provisions were, the
harshest was Article 231. It was also known as the
“war guilt” clause. It placed sole responsibility
for the war on Germany’s shoulders. As a result,
Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies.
All of Germany’s territories in Africa and the
Pacific were declared mandates, or territories to
be administered by the League of Nations.
Under the peace agreement, the Allies would
govern the mandates until they were judged
ready for independence.
A Troubled Treaty
The Versailles treaty was just one of five treaties
negotiated by the Allies. In the end, these agreements created feelings of bitterness and
betrayal—among the victors and the defeated.
Woodrow Wilson
1856–1924
Wilson was tall and thin and
often in poor health. He
suffered from terrible
indigestion and sometimes
had to use a stomach pump
on himself. A scholarly man,
Wilson once served as
president of Princeton
University in New Jersey.
Passionate about
international peace, he took on the U.S. Senate
after it vowed to reject the Treaty of Versailles.
During the political battle, he suffered a stroke
that disabled him for the rest of his term.
Georges Clemenceau
1841–1929
The near opposite of Wilson,
Clemenceau had a compact
physique and a combative
style that earned him the
nickname “Tiger.” He had
worked as a physician and
journalist before entering
the political arena.
Determined to punish
Germany, Clemenceau rarely
agreed with Wilson and his larger quest for
world peace. He once remarked of Wilson, “He
thinks he is another Jesus Christ come upon
earth to reform men.”
The Creation of New Nations The Western
powers signed separate peace treaties in 1919 and
1920 with each of the other defeated nations:
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman
Empire. These treaties, too, led to huge land losses
RESEARCH LINKS For more on Woodrow
for the Central Powers. Several new countries were
Wilson and Georges Clemenceau, go to
created out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
classzone.com
Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia
were all recognized as independent nations.
The Ottoman Turks were forced to give up almost all of their former empire.
They retained only the territory that is today the country of Turkey. The Allies
carved up the lands that the Ottomans lost in Southwest Asia into mandates rather
than independent nations. Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan came under British control; Syria and Lebanon went to France.
Russia, which had left the war early, suffered land losses as well. Romania and
Poland both gained Russian territory. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, formerly part of Russia, became independent nations.
“A Peace Built on Quicksand” In the end, the Treaty of Versailles did little to
build a lasting peace. For one thing, the United States—considered after the war to
be the dominant nation in the world—ultimately rejected the treaty. Many
Americans objected to the settlement and especially to President Wilson’s League
of Nations. Americans believed that the United States’ best hope for peace was to
stay out of European affairs. The United States worked out a separate treaty with
Germany and its allies several years later.
The Great War 425
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58°
N
16°E
8°E
8°W
0°
Stockholm
St. Petersburg
48°E
24°E
NORWAY
40°E
Oslo
32°E
Europe Pre-World War I
SWEDEN
50°
North
Sea
GREAT BRITAIN
N
42°
Brussels
BELGIUM
Berlin
GERMANY
Vienna
Bern
SWITZ.
FRANCE
N
AUSTRIAHUNGARY
ROMANIA
Bucharest
Belgrade
ITALY
ANDORRA
Madrid
R U S S I A
LUX.
Paris
PORTUGAL
B altic
Sea
NETH.
Amsterdam
London
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
DENMARK
Copenhagen
SERBIA
MONTENEGRO
SPAIN
Rome
Sofia
BULGARIA
Constantinople
(Istanbul)
Tirane
ALBANIA
Medite
rran
400 Miles
0
0
ean
Athens
a
800 Kilometers
NORWAY
8°E
0°
8°W
16°
W
Paris
FRANCE
42°
N
ECHO
Madrid
Budapest
AUSTRIA
Rome
Mediterranean
34°N
0
0
426
Sea
S LOVAKIA
Vienna
ITALY
ANDORRA
POLAND
Prague
CZ
SAAR
Bern
SWITZ.
S O V I E T
U N I O N
Warsaw
GERMANY
YU
PORTUGAL
LITHUANIA
Berlin
BELGIUM
LUX.
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Moscow
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
G
O
Bucharest
SL
Belgrade
AV
IA
BULGARIA
Sofia
Tirane
ALBANIA
Black
Sea
Ankara
TURKEY
GREECE
Athens
400 Miles
800 Kilometers
GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Maps
1. Region Which Central Powers nation appears to have lost the most territory?
2. Location On which nation’s former lands were most of the new countries created?
E
48°
Brussels
Riga
LATVIA
Kaunas
DANZIG E. PRUSSIA
(Germany)
NETH.
Amsterdam
London
ESTONIA
Baltic
Sea
40°E
GREAT
BRITAIN
Tallinn
Stockholm
DENMARK
Copenhagen
Helsinki
32°E
IRELAND
Dublin
SWEDEN
Oslo
North
Sea
FINLAND
24°E
Europe Post-World War I
50°
N
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
GREECE
Se
16°E
34°N
Black
Sea
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The Treaty of Versailles: Major Provisions
League of Nations
• International peace
organization; enemy
and neutral nations
initially excluded
• Germany and Russia
excluded
Territorial Losses
Military Restrictions
• Germany returns
Alsace-Lorraine to
France; French border
extended to west bank
of Rhine River
• Germany surrenders all
of its overseas colonies
in Africa and the Pacific
• Limits set on the size of
the German army
• Germany prohibited
from importing or manufacturing weapons or
war material
• Germany forbidden to
build or buy submarines
or have an air force
War Guilt
• Sole responsibility for the
war placed on
Germany’s
shoulders
• Germany forced
to pay the Allies
$33 billion in
reparations over
30 years
SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Charts
1. Analyzing Issues In what ways did the treaty punish Germany?
2. Clarifying What two provinces were returned to France as a result of the treaty?
In addition, the treaty with Germany, in particular the war-guilt clause, left a
legacy of bitterness and hatred in the hearts of the German people. Other countries
felt cheated and betrayed by the peace settlements as well. Throughout Africa and
Asia, people in the mandated territories were angry at the way the Allies disregarded their desire for independence. The European powers, it seemed to them,
merely talked about the principle of national self-determination. European colonialism, disguised as the mandate system, continued in Asia and Africa.
Some Allied powers, too, were embittered by the outcome. Both Japan and
Italy, which had entered the war to gain territory, had gained less than they
wanted. Lacking the support of the United States, and later other world powers,
the League of Nations was in no position to take action on these and other complaints. The settlements at Versailles represented, as one observer noted, “a peace
built on quicksand.” Indeed, that quicksand eventually would give way. In a little
more than two decades, the treaties’ legacy of bitterness would help plunge the
world into another catastrophic war.
Analyzing Issues
What complaints did various
mandated countries voice about
the Treaty of
Versailles?
SECTION
4
ASSESSMENT
TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
• Woodrow Wilson
• Georges Clemenceau
• Fourteen Points
• self-determination
• Treaty of Versailles
• League of Nations
USING YOUR NOTES
MAIN IDEAS
CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING
2. Which group was most
3. What was the goal of
6. FORMING OPINIONS Were the Versailles treaties fair?
justified in its reaction to the
treaty? Why? (10.6.2)
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen
Points? (10.6.1)
4. What was the “war guilt”
Reaction to Treaty
Germany
Africans
& Asians
Italyy
& Japan
clause in the Treaty of
Versailles? (10.6.1)
5. Why did the United
States reject the Treaty of
Versailles? (10.6.1)
Consider all the nations affected. (10.6.1)
7. ANALYZING MOTIVES Why might the European Allies have
been more interested in punishing Germany than in
creating a lasting peace? (10.8.2)
8. EVALUATING DECISIONS Was the United States right to
reject the Treaty of Versailles? Why or why not? (10.6.1)
9. WRITING ACTIVITY POWER AND AUTHORITY Create a list of
five interview questions a reporter might ask Wilson or
Clemenceau about the Paris Peace Conference. Then write
the possible answers to those questions. (Writing 2.2.b)
INTERNET ACTIVITY
Use the Internet to explore a recent achievement or activity by the
United Nations, the modern-day equivalent of the League of Nations.
Present your findings in a brief oral report to the class. (Writing 2.3.b)
INTERNET KEYWORD
United Nations
The Great War 427